Monday, November 2, 2009

Inpestae - Cold and Dead (Psykothic Violence)(EP 2008)

Genre:Raw Black Metal

Country:France

Raw Black Metal.You either hate it or you love it.Of late even this genre,like many others,are spawning out tons of bands that end up sounding generic and surprisingly,even these generic bands make it big,In the bargain some bands that make an effort to sound different lose out in the rat race.Very often,these so called 'raw black metal bands' are nothing but 'badly produced' stuff.

What we have here is Inpestae.A band which knows the difference between raw black metal and badly produced black metal.Production wise,Inpestae is raw as hell but not lo-fi.Rather it has a very powerful atmosphere.By atmosphere I do not mean synth wankery but rather the riffing,drumming and bass.The riffs on the album are catchy and pretty minimal,but they are effective.Noise is a main element in this album.It can get pretty annoying if good headphones are not used.Multiple listens will be required to judge the album.It's more like a wall of noisy distorted riffs done to such perfection that it compels the listener to sit and listen to the entire album.At times it tends to sound a bit industrial too,but in a good way ofcourse.The vocals are typical black metal vocals.Sinister.The album is short and does not drag on in anyway.One of the main things that makes this album really enjoyable for me is the fact that the riffs are not tremolo picking based.They are thrashy.Overall the album is pretty brutal though it does vary in tempo from midpaced to very fast.The drumming blends in really well with the music. Fans of raw black metal should definitely get their hands on this one.You'll probably hate the album at first,but in all honesty,the album's a real grower.